WEAPONRY IN
WORLD WAR ONE
TO UNDERSTAND THE ROLE OF WOMEN
AND CHILDREN IN WORLD WAR ONE
WEAPONRY BEFORE
THE WAR?
Before the war most battles were fought with
swords and guns had become more popular. World
War One saw a new type of fighting. It saw the
countries digging trenches and fighting over
deserted and damaged land in the middle called
“no-man’s land.”
This meant that the armies had to come up with
new ways to fight. The leaders of the armies came
up with new weapons and new ways to attack the
enemy that did not involve soldiers being close to
one another or even having to be able to see the
enemy.
WEAPONS OF WORLD
WAR ONE!
For each of the weapons on the following slides, I want you
to create a top trump for each one.
You need a drawing of each weapon at the top of the top
trump, then you need to rate the weapon, out of 10, on the
following things:
1. How easy is the weapon to use?
/10
2. How good is the weapon for a soldier?
3. How dangerous is the weapon?
/10
/10
GAS MASK
Every solder had to carry a gas
mask. Both sides used chemical
gas to try to force the enemy out
of the trenches and to poison
them. Due to this, the
government gave every soldier a
gas mask. Early gas masks were
a piece of cloth dipped in antichemical liquids to help the
soldier breath but over time they
were added with a special box to
stop the gas coming through.
ZEPELLINS
The Germans used massive
airships filled with helium to
attack the British public. This
was the first time the war had
come to the Britain and was
not just between the soldiers
fighting far away. The
Germans sent two on January
19th 1915 and they each
carried 8 bombs. 9 people in
total were killed and some
building damaged. The
British people were terrified
and it caused them to be
scared of future bombings.
GUNS
The most common rifle
used by the British army
was the Lee Enfield. This
had been used for centuries
by the British Army. The
only problem was they had
to be reloaded regularly.
The British began to use a
pistol called the Webley
Revolver. It allowed 6
bullets to be fired at once.
THE TANK
Tanks first appeared in September
1916. It was the first time tanks
had ever been used in military
conflict. They were the best and
safest way to avoid machine gun
fire and get over the top of
trenches and barbed wire.
The British sent 49 tanks into the
first battle. They were slow and
only travelled at 4 miles per hour.
By the end of the war Britain and
France had 6.500 tanks between
them. Germany had only 20.
THE GRENADE
Grenades are thrown at the opposite
trenches to blow up the enemy. The most
commonly used was the Mills bomb. This
was a fragmentation grenade. The grenade
would explode and the metal on the outside
of the grenade would break into pieces and
fly everywhere, causing even more
damage.
MACHINE GUNS
Machine guns were used
regularly to shoot at the
opposite trenches and kill
the men who were coming
to attack. They were
deadly and could fire up
to 60 rounds of bullets per
minute. The downside was
they needed reloading and
took up to three men to
work.
ARTILLERY
Artillery are huge
guns that can fire
across long
distances. They
usually involved
putting a bomb into a
long tube and then
the soldier would fire
it. Many were so large
they had to be
dragged by horses.